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2008 Finals Retreat


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I was pretty well positioned to hear what happened. Most of the bad sounds came from 3 of the 4 corps with Blue in their names (hint: the Blue Stars were not among them). BD wasn't innocent, but - from my perspective - was not even close to being the worst culprit. I imagine some people place the blame solely on BD because of their narrow loss, but that wasn't the case at all.

Now, while we're beating this dead horse, WTH was it about 2008 finals that caused this mess occur? Or did it just happen?

Good question....

As "horrible" as 2008 sounded and how people have been blaming BD, Bluecoats, whoever.....I honestly don't think anything was worse than past years. 2008 was just another year.

People have always been missing releases and playing #### in America/O'Canada because either they want to show off, or they just plain haven't memorized the piece. And how long has this gone on? It wasn't like 2008 was the first time it has happened. That's just me speaking....

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LOL! Didn't Bush win in 96?

not the trophy that counted :shutup:

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He's not lying....someone posted the link in the "what happens after scores" thread.

I'm still amused that there are two YouTube links in that thread (one of which was the one I am referencing) and my original topic got closed. Peculiar.

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Good question....

As "horrible" as 2008 sounded and how people have been blaming BD, Bluecoats, whoever.....I honestly don't think anything was worse than past years. 2008 was just another year.

People have always been missing releases and playing #### in America/O'Canada because either they want to show off, or they just plain haven't memorized the piece. And how long has this gone on? It wasn't like 2008 was the first time it has happened. That's just me speaking....

I think it has a lot to do with not having retreats at every show anymore. When retreats were at every show, you took time setting up blocks, talking about etiquette, etc. Also, if you messed around with A/OC or something else, there would be consequences (at least at the corps I marched in). The problem is that these corps show up on finals night knowing there are relatively no consequences (they either will never see their instructors again in a professional setting or won't for another four months). Added to that is the fact that it's a time to enjoy your last minutes in uniform with your brothers and sisters and blow off the steam that has been building up with over three months of intense rehearsals and people screaming at you.

When retreat was every night, finals night wasn't really special (at least insofar as the playing of A/OC is concerned). Furthermore, you would probably know (or at least figured out a couple of notes) by that point in the season. Yeah, people would still mess around, but it would usually be one or two screamers (usually the lead players in each section) just notes up the octave. As an aside, I confess that I messed around while playing America/O Canada (instead of playing the "Battle Hymn" lick that the mellos/baris played, I played "Dixie"), but it was hardly audible, I cutoff when the DM did, and I played every note in the rest of the song correctly. It was just something I did to amuse myself on finals night. But anyway. . . I think with retreats every night the performance became "normalized" in a way, so that it would be out of the ordinary for you to screw around, as opposed to when it was just finals when (I imagine/know) there was a culture passed down from vets to rookies that "Oh and then after scores we play this song but no one really knows the music and we just kind of screw around."

I'm not saying we should go back to having retreat every night. I think it was a great tradition and I miss seeing the corps lined up at every show and it could add a certain drama to corps beating other corps. However, I understand the logistical concerns, and if it means getting an hour more of floor time after every show, I'm all for it.

Edited by liebot
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Good question....

As "horrible" as 2008 sounded and how people have been blaming BD, Bluecoats, whoever.....I honestly don't think anything was worse than past years. 2008 was just another year.

People have always been missing releases and playing #### in America/O'Canada because either they want to show off, or they just plain haven't memorized the piece. And how long has this gone on? It wasn't like 2008 was the first time it has happened. That's just me speaking....

I think it was the kids giving DCI the big middle finger for their last outdoor finals week.

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I'm still amused that there are two YouTube links in that thread (one of which was the one I am referencing) and my original topic got closed. Peculiar.

Whatever was there is not there now.

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